Sean Stormes: 6 elements to shape, follow core values to success

How can strict adherence to organizational core values — the specific behaviors leadership requires from its people — provide real competitive advantage and help grow your business profitably?

Years ago, after taking the helm of an underperforming district sales team of a Fortune 500 company, I was faced with a unique situation. The perennial, top-performing salesperson — an otherwise outstanding employee — had been allowed by the previous regime to coach a high school baseball team each spring, meaning he had afternoons off.

The dilemma was continuing to condone special rules for one employee while the other 14 salespeople toiled for nine to 11 hours a day, some of them also high performers. My decision was guided by the precise values I’d shared with the team during my first week on the job. And most important among those values was togetherness: All for one, and one for all.

When I advised the top dog that he’d have to resign his post as baseball coach, he obviously wasn’t happy, and his displeasure manifested itself in a few of the baseball team’s parents writing non-flattering emails to me. For this behavior, I suspended him three days without pay with full support of company HR. During those three days of suspension, more than half the team approached me to say (paraphrasing): “Thank you. While we like (top dog), we never felt it was fair that he left work at 1 p.m. each spring weekday while we could not. I appreciate you holding him to the same standards as the rest of us.”

This show of discipline and commitment to my values resulted in a more close-knit team — greater unification because a “values” stand was taken to remedy a long-standing problem. The team’s collective performance improved significantly as clarity and alignment regarding expected behaviors emerged. Said another way, a sore spot was removed that allowed everyone to achieve greater focus.